REPORT. To the Executive Committee of the AMERICAN UNITARIAN ASSOCIATION. - GENTLEMEN, A considerable interest having been excited, both in England and in New-York, in the cause of establishing a ministry at large for the poor of cities, I have had some communication with gentlemen in those places upon this subject. A very favorable impression, I find, has been made of the claims of this ministry; and there is not only a readiness, but a strong disposition in many, at once to establish and to support it. The difficulty, however, I am told, which presses with the greatest force against this object, is that of obtaining fit instruments for the service. But this difficulty, I apprehend, is not in the fact, that there are not suitable instruments enough at hand for the work. I can hardly believe, among the great numbers who are consecrating themselves to the christian ministry, and above all if we look to the almost equal numbers who are now devoting themselves, with unexampled zeal and energy, to the various objects of christian philanthropy, that many, and that more than are wanted cannot be found, who are suited to make this ministry one of the greatest of bless ings which can be extended to cities. The difficulty, I imagine, of finding fit instruments for it, arises from the want of distinct conceptions of its objects, and of the means of accomplishing them. In some important respects, the service is a new one; and the experiment of its usefulness and claims has yet been but very partially made. Even those who have been the longest engaged in it, have much to learn of the duties and interests which are involved in it. We may, however, give the results of our observation and experience in the work; and these, perhaps, will furnish the best lights which can be obtained, respecting the qualifications of the instruments which are to be sought for it. Happy shall I be, if, by any exposition I can give of the objects of this ministry, and of the principles of operation which have been adopted in it, I may do anything to induce those who are qualified, to offer themselves for the service; and thus forward in any measure the benevolent designs of those, who are waiting only for the agents whom they may commission and employ in it. Allow me, however, before I enter upon this topic, to express my ardent desire that the friends of this ministry will do what they can, in its first establishment, to secure its permanency, by appointing those alone to it, who will be disposed to devote to it their hearts, and their lives. I should be deeply sorry to see this office made a mere stepping-stone to the ministry in our churches; and, certainly, not less sorry to see men called to it, who, having shown their incapacity in every other department of useful exertion, have therefore been thought to be at least qualified to act as ministers of the poor, The truth is, that if this ministry shall be committed to incompetent, however zealous agents, it may be an instrument for the increase, rather than the prevention of the evils it is intended to stay, and to correct; and it will very soon be followed, first by the distrust, and then by the discouragement, even of those who were the most earnest of its supporters. Here, indeed, is not only scope, but demand, as well for the energies of intellect and of judgment, as for the zeal of affection and of benevolence; nor do I believe that there is any better school for the cultivation of the intellectual and moral nature, than is to be found in this service. I have been accustomed to speak of this office as a ministry at large for the poor of cities. This has not arisen from any general objection to the term missionary, as applied to the service. No one has a higher respect than I have for the office of a Christian Missionary. When I first entered upon the service in which I am now engaged, I felt a happiness to which no language can give expression, in the thought, 'I am now a missionary to the poor.' But after I had passed a year in this work, and had learned something of the extent of the field in which I was laboring; of the condition, and the character and wants, intellectual and moral, of the subjects of this ministry; of the variety of the objects constantly demanding attention, and the diversified modes of operation that are required in it; and, above all, when I perceived that little comparatively could be done that was effectual of much good, till the minister was trained for the service by discipline and experience, and till he had obtained also the decided respect, and confidence, and even affection of those with whom he should become connected in this office; I then felt the importance of making this a permanent ministry. In my first semiannual report of the second year of my service, I therefore proposed this permanent ministry, and called it a ministry at large for the poor of cities.' I have no strong predilection for this mode of designating the office. But I am greatly desirous of seeing, or if this may not be, that others should see,— a new class of ministers arising for this service, who will consecrate themselves wholly to it. The continuance of a minister in this office, and in the place where he shall exercise it, is, I think, of far more importance, than in that of our churches. Nay, more; I venture to say, that a minister will not only be able to do thrice the good in the fifth year in which he shall labor in this field, which he could do in the first; but that, at the close of each successive year in it, if he shall possess the true spirit of his ministry, he will find his soul bound to it by stronger ties; by ties, the disruption of which would be among the most painful of the trials he could be called to bear. Let it then be called, if so it shall be preferred to call it, a missionary service. But I beseech its patrons and supporters to seek for it men, who will give to it all their faculties, and all their days. And I equally beseech those who may be disposed to engage in this good work, to enter upon it with the sentiment, if they shall find themselves suited for it, that for this work they will live, and in this work they will die. If such a ministry can be obtained—and it should be demanded till it is obtained, and made commensurate with that part of the population of cities which is not under the pastoral charge of the ministers of their - |